The present invention relates, in general, to folding tricycles and, more particularly, to a folding tricycle designed to allow a user to pedal the tricycle while standing up on the pedals so as to transmit the pedaling force to two front wheels, thus increasing the exercising effect during a pedaling action, the tricycle being also designed to be easily foldable, thereby being of a small size and allowing the user to easily move and carry the folded tricycle.
In recent years, the use of bicycles has been diversified into the use for leisure sport in addition to their original use for transportation.
In accordance with the recent trend of rapid generalization of automobiles and motorcycles in place of bicycles in addition to complex traffic conditions, the use of bicycles as transportation means has declined. However, people want to use bicycles as an exercising means, that is, exercising while pedaling the bicycles. In order to meet such a requirement, several types of exercising instruments having the structures of bicycles have been proposed and widely used. These types of exercising instruments are problematic in that they do not provide a user with a full feeling of riding bicycles outdoors and it is very difficult to move and carry the exercising instruments to a desired place.
To overcome the problems, a variety of folding bicycles have been proposed. Such folding bicycles are designed to be easily foldable and to be easily carried to a desired outdoor place, thereby being effectively used for leisure sport.
Such conventional folding bicycles are designed to allow a user to rotate the pedals while seated on a saddle. However, the folding bicycles fail to maximize the exercising effect since they force a user to sit on a saddle while riding a bicycle. Another problem, experienced in the conventional folding bicycles, resides in that the bicycles have a large volume when they are completely folded so as to be moved and carried to a desired place. This is inconvenient to a user while moving and carrying the folded bicycles.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a folding tricycle, maximizing the exercise effect by allowing a user to pedal the tricycle while a user is standing up on the pedals, as well as being easy to move and carry by being folded to be of a small size.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a folding tricycle, comprising: a running unit consisting of a main frame, two front wheels mounted to both sides of a front end portion of the frame, the main frame consisting of two frame parts with a first folding part joining the two frame parts together, thus being foldable at the folding part, the two frame parts respectively having a front wheel shaft housing and a rear wheel support assembly; a steering unit used for steering the rear wheel, the steering unit having a second folding part, thus being foldable at the second folding part; a brake unit used for selectively braking the front wheels; and a drive unit used for generating a rotating force and transmitting the rotating force to the front wheels through two front wheel shafts alternately acting as driving and driven shafts, the drive unit being designed to generate the rotating force from the pedals operated by a user standing up with both feet being placed on the two pedals.